Heater/furnace option

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Debzo
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Joined: 08/09/2018 - 07:58
Heater/furnace option

I'm disappointed that I chose the heater option because the temperature is very hard to regulate. I will be buying an electric space heater and not using the furnace. But now, that space is unusable for storage. 

Greg A
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Joined: 11/02/2013 - 20:45
Heater

Do you have a digital thermostat or the manual type thermostat?

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Debzo
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Joined: 08/09/2018 - 07:58
Heater/furnace

I don't really know. I'm guessing digital. It is a 2018. All I can do is turn it on and hit either an up arrow or a down arrow to set the desired temperature. The display is digital.

athearn2
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Heater

I'm not sure what you mean by "hard to regulate". We love our factory installed heater (with mechanical thermostat). We live in Maine! Want it a little warmer turn it up. Want a little cooler turn it down. Because it is such a small space the heater does cycle often. And we can run the heater on our battery for a couple days without being plugged into shore power. Many of the Maine state parks don't supply electric power to their camp sites.

Debzo
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Heater/furnace

I'll have to remember that about Maine parks. Acadia on my bucket list.

Re: the thermostat, I'll set it for 68, for example, and it will turn on when the temperature falls to 68, but while it is blowing, it gets unbearably hot and then continues to heat up the Scamp well past 68 after it has kicked back off. I can't figure out what to set it at so that it doesn't get too blazingly hot. If I set it lower hoping that it will heat only to 68, It's too cool. 

LEberhardt
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Furnace run time

You could open the mechanical thermostat and set it to a shorter run time. I recently replaced a damaged thermostat and discovered I needed to adjust it from the factory preset. It's not perfect but I still like having a mechanical system that draws no power when heat isn't called for.

Gordon2
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Joined: 04/26/2015 - 09:01
RE: Heater/furnace option

First let me speak to your purchase of an electric heater.  If you have shore power available then that is what you should use anyway. A little ceramic heater for $25-30 works well. The furnace is meant for times that you are "boondocking."

I am quite sure you have the digital thermostat and it is supposed to regulate the temp better than the mechanical one (and BTW runs off two internal AA batteries taking no other power). But still, the furnace will blow out a lot of hot air before shutting down.  One reason is that there is a purge stage where the fan runs for some time after the flame goes out to basically cool down the furnace.  There is also a start up phase where the fan runs for a time and opens a switch before the actual heating starts. And when the furnace is used when boondocking, it uses the battery to run the fan, and the more the fan runs, the more it discharges the battery. For these reasons you really don't want to have the furnace cycle too often, and that means some swings in the living area temperature. Its basically the nature of the beast - a cheap furnace in a too small space and its best to learn to live with it, unless you have shore power and an electric heater of course.

Debzo
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Thank you so much for the

Thank you so much for the great explanation!

I'll buy a small space heater and only use the furnace when I don't have shore power.